"Only the impossible is worth the effort." - Ali/Alix, 'The Power Book

"There is no love that does not pierce the hands and feet." - Ali/Alix, The Power Book

"But where was God now, with heaven full of astronauts, and the Lord overthrown? I miss God. I miss the company of someone utterly loyal. I still don't think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God who was my friend. I don't even know if God exists, but I do know that if God is your emotional role model, very few human relationships will match up to it. I have an idea that one day it might be possible, I thought once that it had become possible, and that glimpse has set me wandering, trying to find the balance between earth and sky. If the servants hadn't rushed in and parted us, I might have been disappointed, might have snatched off the white samite to find a bowl of soup." - Jeanette, 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit'

"As it is, I can't settle. I want someone who is fierce and will love me until death and know that love is as strong as death, and be on my side for ever and ever. I want someone who will destroy and be destroyed by me. There are many forms of love and affection, some people can spend their whole lives together without knowing each other's names. Naming is a difficult and time-consuming process; it concerns essences, and it means power. But on the wild nights who can call you home? Only the one who knows your name. Romantic love has been diluted into paperback form and has sold thousands and millions of copies. Somewhere it is still in the original, written on tablets of stone. I would cross seas and suffer sunstroke and give away all I have, but not for a man, because they want to be the destroyer and never be destroyed. That is why they are unfit for romantic love. There are exceptions and I hope they are happy." - Jeanette, 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit'

"The unknowness of my needs frightens me. I do not know how huge they are, or how high they are, I only know that they are not being met¹. If you want to find the circumference of an oil drop, you can use lycopodium powder. That's what I will find. A tub of lycopodium powder, and I will sprinkle it on to my needs and find out how large they are. Then when I meet someone I can write up the experiment and show them what they have to take on. Except they might have a growth rate I can't measure, or they might mutate, or even disappear. One thing I am certain of, I do not want to be betrayed, but that's quite hard to say, casually, at the beginning of a relationship. It's not a word people use very often, which confuses me, because there are different kinds of infidelity, but betrayal is betrayal wherever you find it. By betrayal, I mean promising to be on your side, and then being on somebody else's." - Jeanette, 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit'

"Silly holes in people are for breeding or from shooting."

"Ruin your fucking self before they do. Otherwise they'll screw you because you're a nobody. They'll keep you alive but you'll have to crawl and say 'thank you' for every bone they throw. It's better to stay drunk or shoot junk and be a crazy fucker. If the rich guys want to play with you, make them get their hands dirty. Send them away gagging, or sobbing if they're softhearted. You'll be left alone if you're frightening, and dead you're free! You can turn the radiant child into a reflection of the shit you were meant to serve."

"The new disease came. I learn that time does not heal. Everything gets worse with days. I have spots like a dog. I cough and cannot turn my head. I consider sleeping with people I do not like. I need to lie back to front with someone who adores me. I will think more before I cannot. I love my mind when it is fucking the cracks of events. I want to tell you what I know in case it is of use. I want to go to the future please."

"When you start liking pain things start to get interesting."

"I would be dead if not for you. You risked your life to save mine."
"You would have done the same."
"Yes, but I'm a better person." - G'Kar and Londo Mollari, 'The Fall of Centauri Prime'

"It's a Minbari fighting pike, several hundred years old. You're just jealous because you haven't got one. Bad case of pikal envy if you ask me." - Marcus Cole, 'Whatever Happened to Mr. Garibaldi?'

"No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his friend. Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame... for one person. In the dark. Where no one will ever know or see." - Sebastian, 'Comes the Inquisitor'

"No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by the force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power governments, and tyrants, and armies can not stand.... Though it take a thousand years, we will be free." - G'Kar, 'The Long, Twilight Struggle'

"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe." - Marcus Cole, 'A Late Delivery From Avalon'

"Something my father said. He was old, very old at the time. I went into his room, and he was sitting alone in the dark, crying. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said, 'My shoes are too tight, but it doesn't matter, because I have forgotten how to dance.' I never understood what that meant until now. My shoes are too tight, and I have forgotten how to dance." - Londo, 'The War Prayer'

"[The candle represents] all life, every life. We're all born as molecules in the hearts of a billion stars, molecules that do not understand politics, policies and differences. In a billion years we, foolish molecules, forget who we are and where we came from. Desperate acts of ego. We give ourselves names, fight over lines on maps. And pretend our light is better than everyone else's. The flame reminds us of the piece of those stars that live inside us. A spark that tells us: you should know better. The flame also reminds us that life is precious, as each flame is unique. When it goes out, it's gone forever. And there will never be another quite like it. So many candles will go out tonight. I wonder some days if we can see anything at all." - Delenn, 'And All My Dreams, Torn Asunder'

Miscellanenous - all quotations are copyright their authors

"The hell of it was that they were afraid, every one of them, terribly so. Afraid they would never make it to adulthood and freedom, or that they would make it only at the price of their fragile souls; afraid that the world would prove too dull, too cold, that they would always be as alone as they felt right now. But not one of them would admit it. We are not afraid, they would chant along with the band, their faces bathed in golden light, we are not afraid, believing it at least until the music was over." - Poppy Z. Brite, 'Drawing Blood'.